Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers

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Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Well, hello! It’s so good to be back in the kitchen! So one of the first things The Angry Chef did when we got back from the country was get to work cleaning up the grill and getting it ready for summer. While he was outside, I whipped together one of my all-time favorite burgers. I made two on the stove for us, and saved the other two for the grill the next day. My favorite thing about these burgers? With just five ingredients, they’re fast and easy to put together.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

This burger may not have a ton of stuff in it (sometime I’ll post my hamburger recipe, which is kind of like a meatloaf in patty form), but with loads of fresh garlic and basil, it packs a lot of flavor.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

This recipe makes 4 monstrous burgers, or 6-8 smaller ones. Make ’em as big or as little as you like. You could even form a bunch of mini patties for bite-sized sliders.

Serve them on buns with your favorite garnishes. This burger also makes a great topper to a baby spinach salad.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers

2 lbs. ground pork
3 cloves garlic, mashed
1/2 cup fresh basil, shredded or cut into ribbons
freshly cracked black pepper
kosher salt

a drizzle of olive oil, for frying

Makes 4 monster-sized burgers, or 6-8 smaller ones

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers: Make the burger mixture

Put your ground pork in a large bowl.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Toss in the mashed garlic.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Cut the basil into ribbons.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Add the basil to the pork and garlic.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Sprinkle on some kosher salt, to taste.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Crack on some fresh black pepper (also to taste).

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

With your hands, mix the basil, garlic, salt, and pepper into the pork.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Keep going until you have a fairly uniform mixture, like this:

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers: Form the burgers

Divide the meat into quarters (or more pieces, depending on how many burgers you’re making):

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Grab one quarter in your hand.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Smoosh it together until you’ve formed it into a nice patty, like this:

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Make a little indent in the center of the burger. This will help it cook a little more evenly.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Repeat with the rest of the quarters until you have four patties.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers: Fry the burgers

Put a little olive oil in a non-stick pan. Set the pan on the stove over medium-high heat.

Use a large enough pan so that your burgers won’t be crowded. (If the pan is crowded, the burgers will sort of steam, instead of develop a nice brown crust.)

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Tip the pan a little to distribute the olive oil. After a minute or two, when the pan is hot, add your burgers to the pan.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Fry them like this for a few minutes on one side, without moving them around too much.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

After a few minutes, the sides of the burgers should start to look cooked (toward the bottom).

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

When you see that, peek under one. If you have a nice brown crust, like this, flip them over.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Do the same thing on the other side.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

When the burger is browned on the second side, flip it over. Lower the heat at this point and cook for another maybe 5 minutes. (If your burgers are thick like mine, you want them to cook through to the center without burning on the outside.)

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Flip the burger one more time and cook it for about 5 minutes on the other side.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Your final cooking time will depend on how thick your burger patties are.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers: How to tell when your burger is done

How do you know when your burgers are done? Good question. Press on the center with a finger. It should feel solid, not squishy.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

You can also insert a meat thermometer in the side of your burger so it reaches the center. You’re aiming for about 160 degrees.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

When your burgers are done, yank them off the stove. Serve on buns with your favorite garnishes. I like lettuce or cheese with these.

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

Enjoy!

Basil & Garlic Pork Burgers at The Hungry Mouse

 

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Jessie Cross is a cookbook author and creator of The Hungry Mouse, a monster online food blog w/500+ recipes. When she's not shopping for cheese or baking pies, Jessie works as an advertising copywriter in Boston. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts with her husband and two small, fluffy wolves.

47 COMMENTS

  1. Great to have you back Jessie!! the burgers look absolutely fantastic - and being Italian, I love both garlic and basil :-) We don't eat pork - do you think I could use chicken or turkey instead?
    • Thanks, Elisa! They're so good. Hmmm, I'll bet you could totally do this with chicken or turkey. Let me know if you try it? (And...did I miss you? Did you get to Boston yet? I'm totally discombobulated...) +Jessie
  2. Jessie - VERY GLAD to see you back with rolled sleeves and dishing up lovely recipes like this pork burger! I'll get that grill going - Maybe we all can make these today in to show our support for Jessie! cheers! Gabi @ mamaliga
    • Ahoy! Thank you! They were obnoxiously huge, and I have to report that I ate one entire one all myself... And the meat is from McKinnon's, of course. :D +Jessie
  3. The Mouse is back!!! And she roars with Basil and Garlic Pork burgers!! These will initiate my new grill. I missed you alot! I've been eating corn flakes since you left. Well hellCOME Back!!!
    • Oh my goodness, thank you! Means so much to me. :D Congrats on the new grill! How exciting! (We're in the market for a new one, too...any recommendations?) And cornflakes! Now we need to do something about that! Hehehehe.... +Jessie
      • As far as recommendations, I just went to Amazon and picked the one with most stars and best reviews, within my budget. The Weber 2005 Model 841001 22 1/2-Inch Performer Charcoal Grill With Touch and Go Propane Ignition will be my first grill purchased.
  4. We made these for lunch yesterday, with a slight variation. I didn't have basil on hand, but my sage is growing out of control. So I used sage, but cut the amount by half since it was so strongly flavored. And we cooked outside on the gas grill. It was delicious! We served with feta, parsley, and kalamata stuffed cubanelles - a perfect early summer lunch in our backyard :)
  5. I just saw this recipe and it looks incredible. I am the marketing director for the Illinois Pork Producers Association and we are going to focus on getting ground pork, pork burger patties, in grocery stores throughout Illinois. For some reason, they are not and when people taste a pork burger, they go insane with happiness! I did a promotion at a collegiate baseball game last week (the team's name is the Sliders) so we grilled up pork burger sliders and game them away to patrons pre game. Over 800 pork burgers were consumed in an hour with 90% begging for them in the stores! We grilled them on-site, just ground pork and Riley's All Purpose seasoning on top and they were to die for! I'm glad to see someone else appreciate the deliciousness of the pork burger and can't wait to try this recipe. Any ideas on how to go about getting ground pork into retail outlets? We have something working with Sam's Club but we want it all! :-)
  6. This burger taste delicious! I tried out this burger recently and did it in slightly different way. On top of your recipe, I added some chopped onion and grated lemon zest into the patty .This burger went very well with wasabi flavour mayonnaise and very compatible with roasted piquillo peppers. Initially I was planning to used bottled piquillo peppers, sadly to say we don’t have any Spanish grocery shop near by; therefore home grown roasted piquillo is the only option. I used this loaf tin to make a square burger bun.
  7. I was just looking around for a ground pork recipe and stumbled upon this recipe, it sounded wonderful so I tried it. Awesomely delicious! I'm gluten free so I don't use bread and need to have my food taste really good, this did the trick. I topped mine with a little shredded mozzerella. ummmm ummmm good! By the way the nosy in me had to see why everyone was missing you, and I read your story. Thank you for posting it, I will be making changes to the way I handle my internet security. It's a little after the fact, but I learned a lot, I never would think of anyone coming after a food blog, or any thing like it. Thanks again, Barbara
  8. we had these for our evening meal. OMy so so good. I added a tad finely minced onion and hubby cooked on the grill. We added white American cheese. We both loved them. Thank you for a keeper recipe.

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